Red was absolutely brilliant, and I haven’t read a book that was so much fun in a long time.
Scarletville is a sanctuary where people with red hair flock to. Felicity St John has it all – a popular red-headed boyfriend, brilliant red-headed friends, and she’s set to follow in her mother’s footsteps and win the prestigious Miss Scarlet pageant. The only problem is, Felicity has a secret – she’s not actually redheaded. And in Scarletville, blondes need not apply.
Writing this review has brought back the total awesomeness of Red. I’m so, so glad I decided to read it because it was exactly what I needed.
The originality of Red was brilliant. Cherry has taken the ‘you’re ginger and so you’re stupid’ stereotype and flipped it on its head. I think it’s a genius idea!
The protagonist, Felicity, was so awesome. I really loved her and found her easy to get to know and so interesting. It must be so hard having to conceal such a big secret from the whole town, with people shunning you if they found out the truth. It was fascinating to see the depths Felicity was willing to go to make sure nobody found out.
I think one of the questions I was thinking to myself when reading Red was: What does popularity mean? In Scarletville, the colour of your hair determines where you are in the social hierarchy, but it’s not hard to look past this and see an underlying message. Most people will know what it’s like to not fit in and I think Red highlighted this in non-obvious ways, which I thought was a great change.
The plot ambled along, allowing the reader to become invested in the characters and storyline. I feel as if it was paced perfectly, with not a boring moment. I’m glad it’s a standalone because everything was tied up perfectly at the end and I was left satisfied. We’re in need of lots more brilliant standalones!
I really enjoyed Red and would highly recommend it. It contains everything I want in a good book.